2018 Health Systems Research Symposium

The Alma Ata vision of ‘Health for All’ remains as compelling today as it was in 1978, as reflected in goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But the world has changed in forty years. Despite improved health outcomes, there remain extraordinary challenges for health equity and social inclusion, such as demographic and disease transitions, conflicts and their subsequent migrations, pluralistic health systems and markets, and climate change. Political systems still marginalize those most in need. Yet there are new opportunities for health systems to achieve universal coverage.

The Fifth Global Symposium advanced conversations and collaborations on new ways of financing health; delivering services; and engaging the health workforce, new social and political alliances, and new applications of technologies to promote health for all.

Results for Development was in Liverpool — at booth #38 participating in the following events:


Introducing Tools and Resources to Advance Community Health Policy and Planning

Monday, October 8
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Exhibition Centre Room 17

This interactive session presented tools and resources for planning, costing and implementing at-scale national community health worker programs. Highlighting country examples from Egypt and Ghana, this session demonstrated the tools’ utility in community health systems decision-making and program planning.

R4D participants: Cicely Thomas


A Marketplace of New Strategies for Building Human Capacity

Monday, October 8
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
ACC Room 11C

Improving health worker performance is a health systems global goal. This interactive marketplace of promising interventions from USAID’s Maternal and Child Survival Program Project and Jhpiego featured MCSP program efforts in mentoring in 21 countries and Jhpiego outcomes of evidence-based new training approaches in Ghana and Uganda.

R4D participant: Maria Francisco


Engaging Private Providers in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Strengthening Quality of Care and Effective Regulation

Tuesday, October 9
8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Suites 3, 4 and 5 at Jury’s Inn Hotel

The Private Sector in Health thematic working group of Health Systems Global hosted this 1-day pre-symposium session. (With opening plenary remarks by new R4D Board Member Dr. Sania Nishtar and closing remarks by R4D President and CEO Gina Lagomarsino.) Multiple concurrent discussions took place throughout the day, including:

  • Imagining the future of health facility regulation: Meet the innovators
  • Can market-based solutions to primary healthcare delivery in Africa advance goals of scale, sustainability and quality?

R4D participants: Sabeen Khan, Cicely Thomas, Gina Lagomarsino, Donika DimovskaDr. Kamaliah Noh


Improving Primary Health Care: Measurement for improvement to achieve quality PHC for all

Tuesday, October 9
1:30 pm – 5:00 pm
ACC Room 3A

The Sustainable Development Goal for health seeks to ensure health lives and promote well-being for all. Effective primary health care is essential to accomplishing this goal, and must become the foundation of comprehensive health systems. Existing measurement tools have largely failed to capture the complexity of the systems necessary to deliver primary health care for all.

The Primary Health Care Performance Initiative (PHCPI) has initiated a global effort to support low- and middle-income countries in improving primary health care, beginning with better measurement.

This session focusedon country-based and global efforts to close three critical gaps: data supply, data relevance and actionability, and data use for PHC improvement.

R4D participants: Chloe Lanzara, Yoriko Nakamura


Leveraging Practitioner-to-Practitioner Learning to Solve UHC Health Systems Challenges

Wednesday, October 10
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
ACC Hall 2F

Joint Learning Network representatives from Malaysia, Mongolia, Nigeria and South Korea led an interactive session featuring facilitated joint learning discussions, ranging from strengthening primary care to mobilizing resources for health. The session explored how country-level policymakers and practitioners can jointly solve health systems challenges in pursuit of UHC.

R4D participants: Amanda Folsom, Dr. Kamaliah Noh


 

Poster Presentations

Resource allocation and utilization in the health and education sectors of Ghana: Challenges and opportunities

Thursday, October 11
3:55 pm
ACC Hall 2M

R4D participant: Yoriko Nakamura

Overcoming Barriers to Public-Private Partnerships for Women’s Health: Mechanisms to engage with and strategically purchase from the private sector in Cambodia, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda

Friday, October 12
1:05 pm
ACC Hall 2M

R4D participant: John Campbell

Global & Regional Initiatives

R4D is a globally recognized leader for designing initiatives that connect implementers, experts and funders across countries to build knowledge and get that knowledge into practice.